Barbara Bush, the snowy-haired first lady whose plainspoken manner and utter lack of pretense made her more popular at times than her husband, President George H.W. Bush, died Tuesday. She was 92.

Family spokesman Jim McGrath confirmed the death in a statement. The cause wasn't immediately known.

Mrs. Bush brought a grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, often appearing in her trademark fake pearl chokers and displaying no vanity about her white hair and wrinkles.

"What you see with me is what you get. I'm not running for president - George Bush is," she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan.

The Bushes, who were married Jan. 6, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Mrs. Bush was one of only two first ladies who had a child who was elected president. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams.

"I had the best job in America," she wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. "Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun."

The publisher's daughter and oilman's wife could be caustic in private, but her public image was that of a self-sacrificing, supportive spouse who referred to her husband as her "hero."

In the White House, "you need a friend, someone who loves you, who's going to say, 'You are great,'" Mrs. Bush said in a 1992 television interview.

Her uncoiffed, matronly appearance often provoked jokes that she looked more like the boyish president's mother than his wife. Late-night comedians quipped that her bright white hair and pale features also imparted a resemblance to George Washington.

Eight years after leaving the nation's capital, Mrs. Bush stood with her husband as their son George W. was sworn in as president. They returned four years later when he won a second term. Unlike Mrs. Bush, Abigail Adams did not live to see her son's inauguration. She died in 1818, six years before John Quincy Adams was elected.

Mrs. Bush insisted she did not try to influence her husband's politics.

"I don't fool around with his office," she said, "and he doesn't fool around with my household."

In 1984, her quick wit got her into trouble when she was quoted as referring to Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, as "that $4 million - I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich."

"It was dumb of me. I shouldn't have said it," Mrs. Bush acknowledged in 1988. "It was not attractive, and I've been very shamed. I apologized to Mrs. Ferraro, and I would apologize again."

"She's never shied away from saying what she thinks. ... She's managed to insult nearly all of my friends with one or another perfectly timed acerbic comment," Laura Bush wrote in her 2010 book, "Spoken from the Heart."

In her 1994 autobiography, "Barbara Bush: A Memoir," Mrs. Bush said she did her best to keep her opinions from the public while her husband was in office. But she revealed that she disagreed with him on two issues: She supported legal abortion and opposed the sale of assault weapons.

"I honestly felt, and still feel, the elected person's opinion is the one the public has the right to know," Mrs. Bush wrote.

She also disclosed a bout with depression in the mid-1970s, saying she sometimes feared she would deliberately crash her car. She blamed hormonal changes and stress.

"Night after night, George held me weeping in his arms while I tried to explain my feelings," she wrote. "I almost wonder why he didn't leave me."

She said she snapped out of it in a few months.

Mrs. Bush raised five children: George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. A sixth child, 3-year-old daughter Robin, died of leukemia in 1953.

In a speech in 1985, she recalled the stress of raising a family while married to a man whose ambitions carried him from the Texas oil fields to Congress and into influential political positions that included ambassador to the United Nations, GOP chairman and CIA director.

"This was a period, for me, of long days and short years," she said, "of diapers, runny noses, earaches, more Little League games than you could believe possible, tonsils and those unscheduled races to the hospital emergency room, Sunday school and church, of hours of urging homework or short chubby arms around your neck and sticky kisses."

Along the way, she said, there were also "bumpy moments - not many, but a few - of feeling that I'd never, ever be able to have fun again and coping with the feeling that George Bush, in his excitement of starting a small company and traveling around the world, was having a lot of fun."

In 2003, she wrote a follow-up memoir, "Reflections: Life After the White House."

"I made no apologies for the fact that I still live a life of ease," she wrote. "There is a difference between ease and leisure. I live the former and not the latter."

Along with her memoirs, she wrote "C. Fred's Story" and "Millie's Book," based on the lives of her dogs. Proceeds from the books benefited adult and family literacy programs. Laura Bush, a former teacher with a master's degree in library science, continued her mother-in-law's literacy campaign in the White House.

The 43rd president was not the only Bush son to seek office in the 1990s. In 1994, when George W. was elected governor of Texas, son Jeb narrowly lost to incumbent Lawton Chiles in Florida. Four years later, Jeb was victorious in his second try in Florida.

"This is a testament to what wonderful parents they are," George W. Bush said as Jeb Bush was sworn into office. He won a second term in 2002, and then made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Sons Marvin and Neil both became businessmen. Neil achieved some notoriety in the 1980s as a director of a savings and loan that crashed. Daughter Dorothy, or Doro, has preferred to stay out of the spotlight. She married lobbyist Robert Koch, a Democrat, in 1992.

In a collection of letters published in 1999, George H.W. Bush included a note he gave to his wife in early 1994.

"You have given me joy that few men know," he wrote. "You have made our boys into men by bawling them out and then, right away, by loving them. You have helped Doro to be the sweetest, greatest daughter in the whole wide world. I have climbed perhaps the highest mountain in the world, but even that cannot hold a candle to being Barbara's husband."

Mrs. Bush was born Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York. Her father was the publisher of McCall's and Redbook magazines. After attending Smith College for two years, she married young naval aviator George Herbert Walker Bush. She was 19.

After World War II, the Bushes moved to the Texas oil patch to seek their fortune and raise a family. It was there that Bush began his political career, representing Houston for two terms in Congress in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In all, the Bushes made more than two dozen moves that circled half the globe before landing at the White House in 1989. Opinion polls taken over the next four years often showed her approval ratings higher than her husband's.

The couple's final move, after Bush lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton, was to Houston, where they built what she termed their "dream house" in an affluent neighborhood. The Bush family also had an oceanfront summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

After retiring to Houston, the Bushes helped raise funds for charities and appeared frequently at events such as Houston Astros baseball games. Public schools in the Houston area are named for both of them.

In 1990, Barbara Bush gave the commencement address at all-women Wellesley College. Some had protested her selection because she was prominent only through the achievements of her husband. Her speech that day was rated by a survey of scholars in 1999 as one of the top 100 speeches of the century.

"Cherish your human connections," Mrs. Bush told graduates. "At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent."

The family of former first lady Barbara Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush

Her father was Marvin Pierce and mother Pauline Robinson. Pierce was a president of the company that published popular women's magazines Redbook and McCall's. She met Bush in 1941 at age 16 at a Christmas dance. They were married Jan. 6, 1945. The couple had six children, George W., Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Barbara had a brother, Scott.

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush, husband

His father was Prescott Sheldon Bush, a U.S. senator from Connecticut from 1952 to 1963. His mother was Dorothy Walker Bush, daughter of George Herbert Walker, a banker who in 1920 was president of the U.S. Golf Association and started the Walker Cup Match, a golf trophy competition every other year involving a team of amateurs from the U.S. against a team representing England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He had a sister, Nancy, and three brothers, Prescott, Jonathan and William.

George W. Bush, son

Born in 1946, he was elected governor of Texas in 1994 and U.S. president in 2000, serving two terms in the White House. He also is a former managing general partner of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers. He married Laura Welch, a former teacher and librarian from Midland, Texas, in 1977. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, born in 1981. Jenna, married in 2008, has two daughters.

Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush, daughter

Born in December 1949, she died Oct. 11, 1953, of leukemia. She is buried in College Station, Texas, on the grounds of the Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University.

John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, son

Born in 1953, he is a former developer and investment banker, Florida commerce secretary and governor of Florida. He unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. He married Columba Gallo in 1974 and they had three children - George Prescott, Noelle and John, also known as Jebbie - and four grandchildren. George Prescott, married in 2004 and elected Texas Land Commissioner in 2014, has two sons. Jebbie, married in 2010, has two daughters.

Neil Bush, son

Born in 1955, he is a founder of Ignite! Learning, an educational software company, and is board chairman of Points of Light, a public service nonprofit. Points of Light identifies him as president of ATX Oil and manager of Luoil, a project company. He married Sharon Smith in 1980 and they divorced in 2003. They had three children, Lauren, Pierce and Ashley. In 2004, he married Maria Manass. Lauren Bush, married in 2011, has one son.

Marvin Bush, son

Born in 1956, he is co-founder and a managing partner of Winston Partners, a Virginia-based investment firm, and principal at the George W. Bush Presidential Library. He married Margaret Conway Molster in 1981 and they had two children, daughter Marshall and son Charles Walker.

Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter

Born in 1959 and known as "Doro," she married William LeBlond in 1982 and they had two children, Samuel and Nancy Ellis, known as "Ellie." She and LeBlond divorced in 1990, and she married Robert "Bobby" Koch in 1992. They had two children, Gigi and Robert. She is a board member of the Washington-based National Rehabilitation Hospital, where she once worked, and serves on the board of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Text of 1990 speech by Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush gave the commencement address at the all-women Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on June 1, 1990.

The speech was ranked No. 47 on a list of the top speeches of the century in 1999. The list, compiled by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Texas A&M University, was based on a survey of scholars who ranked speeches by social and political impact and rhetorical artistry.

Here is the text of her speech:

___

President Keohane, Mrs. Gorbachev, trustees, faculty, parents, and I should say, Julie Porter, class president, and certainly, my new best friend, Christine Bicknell. And of course, the class of 1990.

I'm really thrilled to be here today, and very excited, as I know all of you must be, that Mrs. Gorbachev could join us.

These are exciting times. They're exciting in Washington. And I had really looked forward to coming to Wellesley. I thought it was going to be fun. I never dreamt it would be this much fun. So, thank you for that.

More than 10 years ago, when I was invited here to talk about our experiences in the People's Republic of China, I was struck by both the natural beauty of your campus and the spirit of this place. Wellesley, you see, is not just a place, but an idea - an experiment in excellence in which diversity is not just tolerated, but is embraced. The essence of this spirit was captured in a moving speech about tolerance given last year by a student body president of one of your sister colleges.

She related the story by Robert Fulghum about a young pastor finding himself in charge of some very energetic children, hits upon a game called "Giants, Wizards and Dwarfs." ''You have to decide now," the pastor instructed the children, "which you are - a giant, a wizard or a dwarf?" At that, a small girl tugging at his pants leg, asks, "But where do the mermaids stand?" And the pastor tells her there are no mermaids. And she says, "Oh yes there are. I am a mermaid."

Now, this little girl knew what she was, and she was not about to give up on either her identity or the game. She intended to take her place wherever mermaids fit into the scheme of things. Where do the mermaids stand - all of those who are different, those who do not fit the boxes and the pigeonholes? "Answer that question," wrote Fulghum, "and you can build a school, a nation, or a whole world."

As that very wise young woman said, "Diversity, like anything worth having, requires effort." Effort to learn about and respect difference, to be compassionate with one another, to cherish our own identity, and to accept unconditionally the same in others.

You should all be very proud that this is the Wellesley spirit.

Now I know your first choice today was Alice Walker - guess how I know? Known for "The Color Purple." Instead, you got me, known for the color of my hair!

Alice Walker's book has a special resonance here. At Wellesley, each class is known by a special color. For four years, the class of '90 has worn the color purple.

Today, you meet on Severance Green to say goodbye to all of that, to begin a new and a very personal journey, to search for your own true colors. In the world that awaits you beyond the shores of Lake Waban, no one can say what your true colors will be. But this I do know: You have a first-class education from a first-class school, and so you need not, probably cannot live a paint- by-numbers life.

Decisions are not irrevocable, choices do come back, and as you set off from Wellesley, I hope many of you will consider making three very special choices. The first is to believe in something larger than yourself, to get involved in some of the big ideas of our time.

I chose literacy because I honestly believed that if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plague our nation and our society.

And early on, I made another choice, which I hope you will make as well. Whether you are talking about education, career, or service, you are talking about life and life really must have joy.

It's supposed to be fun. One of the reasons I made the most important decision of my life, to marry George Bush, is because he made me laugh. It's true, sometimes we laugh through our tears, but that shared laughter has been one of our strongest bonds. Find the joy in life because as Ferris Bueller said on his day off - "Life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around once in a while you are going to miss it."

I am not going to tell George you clapped more for Ferris than you clapped for George.

The third choice that must not be missed is to cherish your human connections, your relationships with family and friends. For several years you've had impressed upon you the importance to your career of dedication and hard work, and of course that's true. But as important as your obligations as a doctor, a lawyer, a business leader will be, you are a human being first and those human connections with spouses, with children, with friends are the most important investment you will ever make.

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent.

We are in a transitional period right now - fascinating and exhilarating times, learning to adjust to changes and the choices we - men and women - are facing. As an example, I remember what a friend said on hearing her husband complain to his buddies that he had to babysit. Quickly setting him straight, my friend told her husband that when it's your own kids, it's not called babysitting.

Now, maybe we should adjust faster and maybe we should adjust slower. But whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.

For over 50 years, it was said that the winner of Wellesley's annual hoop race would be the first to get married. Now they say the winner will be the first to become a CEO. Both of those stereotypes show too little tolerance for those who want to know where the mermaids stand.

So, I want to offer a new legend. The winner of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream - not society's dreams - her own personal dream.

Who knows? Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the president's spouse, and I wish him well.

Well, the controversy ends here, but our conversation is only beginning, and a worthwhile conversation it has been. So, as you leave Wellesley today, take with you deep thanks for the courtesy and the honor you have shared with Mrs. Gorbachev and with me.